My school has a school intranet powered by Moodle. We call it iSchool. My students were used to using it as a repository for classroom resources. They were also used to doing quizzes in iSchool. The first course that I set up for flip teaching was year 12 HSC Biology.
I chose that class as I had surveyed them and they are a small class, so I thought it would be easier to monitor.[One of the difficulties with small classes is that it is often difficult to get relevant, animated discussion, so the lessons tend to be a bit tedious.]Thinking in terms of what I want my students to achieve, I set up a 'book' with descriptions and explanations of some of the over-riding ideas in biology. I add to these with each new topic, or as I find a task or concept that my students don't understand.
The books each have pages or chapters which refer to specific concepts. They provide the student with the resources they need to cover the factual material. Below is the lay out of a typical page.
The students will work through these. I usually try to find a number of different forms of resource covering the same material (as shown) to cater for different learning styles. Often students will only access one and only try others if they are not sure of the material, or if they like the presenter! My school uses Outlook as it's email program. I generally send my students an Outlook appointment for most lessons, informing them of the content material that will be dealt with.
In this way the students make sure that they have covered the content before the lesson.
Generally the students do come to lessons prepared as they find that the lessons are far more interesting. They are able to participate actively in, if not dictate, the discussions. We have the time to carry out authentic investigations. I am able to spend time with individual students and the students are able to work collaboratively because I am not 'lecturing'. If a student does not come prepared, I suggest that they go somewhere where they can work to cover that content. This has only happened once, as everyone realised that it was the person who had not prepared themselves who missed out ~ yet they still covered the content!
There have been a number of positive effects for this class. These students:-
really enjoy Biology,
appreciate their learning,
take responsibility for their learning,
recommend resources to each other and to me,
spend more time on Biology than they used to,
write more structured responses to questions,
have ALL significantly improved their assessment task results.
From my point of view; I spend more time planning my course and searching for resources, but I find this work stimulating and rewarding. Class time is much more interesting because I am able to spend time with individual students. I think more carefully about my questioning and often write down questions that I want to illicit specific discussions. Those questions are usually higher order questions. We spend time analysing and planning responses to HSC type questions and students work on their written responses in class so that they can be edited and shaped to cover all relevant details. Marking has become easier and much more pleasant because the responses are more structured and detailed. [I also have less marking, because we cover a lot of that in class.] Further readings
I chose that class as I had surveyed them and they are a small class, so I thought it would be easier to monitor.[One of the difficulties with small classes is that it is often difficult to get relevant, animated discussion, so the lessons tend to be a bit tedious.]Thinking in terms of what I want my students to achieve, I set up a 'book' with descriptions and explanations of some of the over-riding ideas in biology. I add to these with each new topic, or as I find a task or concept that my students don't understand.
The books each have pages or chapters which refer to specific concepts. They provide the student with the resources they need to cover the factual material. Below is the lay out of a typical page.
The students will work through these. I usually try to find a number of different forms of resource covering the same material (as shown) to cater for different learning styles. Often students will only access one and only try others if they are not sure of the material, or if they like the presenter!
My school uses Outlook as it's email program. I generally send my students an Outlook appointment for most lessons, informing them of the content material that will be dealt with.
Generally the students do come to lessons prepared as they find that the lessons are far more interesting. They are able to participate actively in, if not dictate, the discussions. We have the time to carry out authentic investigations. I am able to spend time with individual students and the students are able to work collaboratively because I am not 'lecturing'. If a student does not come prepared, I suggest that they go somewhere where they can work to cover that content. This has only happened once, as everyone realised that it was the person who had not prepared themselves who missed out ~ yet they still covered the content!
There have been a number of positive effects for this class. These students:-
From my point of view; I spend more time planning my course and searching for resources, but I find this work stimulating and rewarding. Class time is much more interesting because I am able to spend time with individual students. I think more carefully about my questioning and often write down questions that I want to illicit specific discussions. Those questions are usually higher order questions. We spend time analysing and planning responses to HSC type questions and students work on their written responses in class so that they can be edited and shaped to cover all relevant details. Marking has become easier and much more pleasant because the responses are more structured and detailed. [I also have less marking, because we cover a lot of that in class.]
Further readings